Fat Albert Colorado Blue Spruce for Sale - Buying & Growing Guide

Planting and Care

by Mary Van Keuren | Gardener (30+ Years Experience) – last update on June 8, 2022

Planting instructions

Site your tree in well-draining soil where it will receive at least 4 hours of sun a day. Be sure you’re not placing it under any overhead cables or wires. Unpot the sapling and tease out any encircling roots, which can girdle the tree and slowly kill it. Dig a hole that’s as deep as the root ball and 2-3 times as wide. Place the tree in the hole, spreading out the roots as you go. Holding the tree upright and steady, fill in around it with topsoil. Tamp down as you go to eliminate air pockets. Water thoroughly. Apply a 2-3 inch layer of an organic mulch such as bark chips around the tree’s root zone to hold in moisture and hinder weeds.

Watering and nutrients

Blue spruce trees like Fat Albert like consistently moist soils, but a mature tree can tolerate some drought. Water newly-planted trees a few times a week, tapering back after a month or so unless you’re experiencing very dry or hot weather. To know if you need to water, check the soil two inches below the surface — if it’s dry, give your tree a drink. The tree doesn’t need much supplemental fertilizer. If you wish, you can give it a feeding of a general-purpose, slow-release fertilizer designed for landscape trees in early spring.

Pollination

Conifers such as the Fat Albert Colorado Blue Spruce are monoecious, meaning that male and female reproductive organs both appear on the same tree. In this case, there are male and female cones. Male cones produce pollen, which is caught by the wind and lands on female cones. Female cones then produce small seeds that are dispersed during the fall and winter.

Pruning

Unlike many landscape trees, Fat Albert does not need regular spring pruning. The tree will naturally assume a stocky pyramidal shape without any help. It is important to monitor your tree for broken, dead, or diseased branches, which should be trimmed off whenever you see them.

Pests, diseases, and animals

Blue spruce trees are not prone to many insect pests or diseases, and Fat Albert is no exception. A healthy tree can fight off minor infestations, but you can often help your tree by releasing beneficial insects such as ladybugs, which eat aphids. Other insects that may attack conifers include bagworms, balsam twig aphids, and the spruce bud scale insect. Common diseases include needle cast, a fungal disease that is more common in wet weather, and cytospora canker, which causes cankers on secondary branches. The canker is more likely to show up if your tree has a wound, so be careful when trimming or mowing around the tree.

Achieving maximum results

When designing your landscape, two of the most basic elements to consider are contrast and color. Some people don’t want to have plants that all are exactly the same color, nor a bland view that has no contrast — of texture, size, and shape. This is where the Fat Albert Colorado Blue Spruce can be a true hero. Its silver-blue foliage is unusual, and will stand out against other plants that feature deep green or light chartreuse coloring. And with its highly textural, solid pyramidal form, the tree offers contrast to more vertical or spherical plantings. Consider using this versatile tree as a backdrop to a perennial garden that includes, for example, a smaller red osier dogwood, with striking red branches. Or you might use it as a foil next to a Spartan Juniper, whose tall, slender shape provides ready contrast to Fat Albert’s broad, stocky silhouette.

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